Soundlessly, in the Moonlight
by Rukatsuki
Summary: Even the best relationship will be destroyed by obsessive jealousy, and even an angel can lose to her dark side when her lover fantasizes about another woman while he is making love to her. (Ran/Shinichi, Shiho/Shinichi)


_Even the best relationship will be destroyed by obsessive jealousy, and even an angel can lose to her dark side when her lover fantasizes about another woman while he is making love to her._

 **Disclaimer & A/N: **

If _Detective Conan_ belonged to me, I'd change the canon relationship between Shinichi and Ran to something much darker or let Shinichi end up with either Heiji or Ai. But since the series belongs to Gosho Aoyama, this will stay only wishful thinking.

The ones who recognize my writing style will know who I am. ;) Since I'm not sure whether this twisted little one-shot, which has been sitting on my hard drive until now, is still tame enough for this site's M-Rating or whether my account will be deleted because this is close to MA, I've posted the story under this account, which I use for experimental works. I personally believe this is still M since it's fairly explicit but the love scenes aren't intended to be salacious or gratuitous.

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 **Soundlessly, in the Moonlight**

by Rukatsuki

(Aikarena)

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###

Shinichi had turned his face towards the bedroom window, where the moonlight was filtering in through the half-closed curtains. Although they had turned on the heater before going to bed, the air was uncomfortably cool. When Ran wrapped her arms around his bare torso and planted a fleeting kiss on his cold neck, she realized that he was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice her.

"Are you sad… or angry at me?" she asked although she thought the more fitting expression would be "unhappy" or "heartbroken." It might have been Shinichi who invited Ran to spend the night at his place when she told him that she'd like to stay with him until he had to leave for work (otousan was going to stay at a drinking buddy's place to marathon Yoko-chan's live action series and wouldn't miss his daughter at all), but Ran was the one who slipped under Shinichi's blanket when he was fast asleep and who kissed him awake so that they could spend the time they had together in a more meaningful way (an act which Shinichi, in retrospect, could misread as an assault when he was sleep-deprived and vulnerable).

To her relief, he looked genuinely surprised and only raised his brow at her in an expression of slight annoyance. You silly girl with your ever-changing moods, his gaze said before his lips curved up. "No, I'm not angry at all!"

###

Their first time wasn't a mind-blowing experience, but in its own way, it was magical. After one year of dating, it was almost overdue. You could blame it on the bottle of sherry, which they shared in the restaurant that night. Of course Shinichi didn't reject Ran when she came to him (and Ran would never have made a move if she had had any doubts about Shinichi's feelings). To Ran's relief, her boyfriend was extremely curious and willing although she strongly suspected that she owed his welcome enthusiasm less to his love for her and more to his passion for mystery and the contemplative, brooding mood in which he had been ever since he solved his last case. Haibara Ai alias Miyano Shiho had announced that she was going to end their regular meetings, firstly because she had gotten herself a hunky boyfriend (her long-time idol Higo Ryusuke out of all people), secondly because she was graduating and no longer had time to play assistant to Shinichi. Shinichi was devastated because Shiho had been his loyal and helpful partner, who he could rely on and who he considered a good friend; but Ran was relieved because the graceful redhead with deep blue almond eyes was way too pretty to be a female buddy and often gazed at Shinichi with longing.

The last doubts were cast aside with the last pieces of clothing; and no sooner had Ran murmured into Shinichi's ear that she was ready for the next step in their relationship than Shinichi flipped her on her back and, kissing her with a passion which was uncharacteristic of him since his kisses used to be cautious and gentle, eagerly explored every inch of her skin like a surprise present he had just unpacked.

Illuminated by the moonlight and only half protected by the translucent curtains, their bodies began to gravitate towards each other like two separate entities, over which they had no control. Shinichi gingerly cupped Ran's face and brushed aside Ran's hair before he covered her skin with kisses, and the scents of their bodies blending together, foreign and intoxicating, overwhelmed Ran when she buried her face in the crook of his elbow.

It was fascinating how quiet Shinichi was, how brightly his eyes shone in the moonlight while he didn't make a single sound. Both their bodies were covered with sweat, not to mention her blood, whose pungent smell filled the room, but Ran didn't mind it, maybe even liked it. Like the pain which ripped through her body when Shinichi and she became one, it proved to her that love demanded sacrifices and was worth the suffering.

As the pain faded and the first sparks of pleasure began, unfamiliar noises escaped Ran's throat, loud enough for their neighbors to suspect the activities in Shinichi's mansion unless they were watching TV loudly or listening to deafening music, but Ran wasn't in the mood to consider the consequences. Shinichi, on the other hand, was strangely silent although he seemed to enjoy the response he could provoke from her.

The sound of their hips crashing against each other accompanied by the creak of the bed and the rhythm of their erratic breathing were oddly beautiful to Ran's ears. Unexpectedly and a bit too early, Shinichi came inside her, silently, soundlessly, which Ran only noticed when he stopped moving. "I love you," Ran whispered, feeling suddenly insecure after trying an awkward, sloppy kiss, which Shinichi broke off with a frown as if he had just realized that he couldn't stand kissing her. "I love you, Shinichi." To Ran, kissing Shinichi meant tasting heaven and earth and hell, drowning in a whole world of emotions she could never feel for anyone else, but her intuition told her that Shinichi very much preferred sleeping with her to kissing her.

Shinichi did repeat her love declaration to Ran, however, pronouncing the "ai" in "aishiteru" like a name or a nickname and hesitating to add the rest of the phrase as if he had been overcome by a sudden fit of shyness. "I love you!" he said at last, his voice dark and hoarse.

There was a moment when Ran was struck by the impression that Shinichi could have met another woman during his case abroad, who Shinichi was always thinking of while he was with her—a nagging doubt which preyed on her mind despite his distracting caresses. Shinichi seemed driven by an inner force; and his desire for their union, as intense and desperate as it was, was directed at something in his fantasy that had nothing to do with her. But he dispelled her fears by whispering into her ear that to him, their night together was absolutely perfect, much more enjoyable than he had imagined, and that he considered himself lucky he had found the love of his life so soon.

###

Shinichi tenderly ran his fingers through Ran's hair, smiling at the long, dark strands in his hand, before he pulled Ran beneath him and they made love again, even more passionately than the first time but still with the slight awkwardness of inexperienced lovers, who had yet to grow accustomed to each other. Ran accidentally kicked at Shinichi's shin once, and Shinichi yanked at Ran's hair when he lazily rested his elbow on it while trying to cradle her head with his other hand. But now that the pain of the first time was almost gone and he had learned to control his excitement while she had learned to relax, they were getting the hang of it.

Their kiss afterwards was absolutely delightful, neither too dry nor too moist and with the perfect amount of tongue. As it turned out, Ran's fears were groundless, and the ending of their night together was incredible after they both managed to abandon their shyness in the throes of ecstasy and their ebbing into peace and satisfaction. There was a wonderful sense of connection and contentment between them, stronger than it had ever been before. Ran told Shinichi over and over again that she loved him, which Shinichi answered with bright, loving smiles and kisses; and they stayed in each other's arms until the crack of dawn, when Shinichi had to leave and Ran had to go home.

Although Shinichi, being the dense mystery freak he was, didn't repeat to her that he loved her, Ran didn't need to ask him since she could feel it. The only thing which bothered her was his strange silence, which almost resembled melancholy and which enveloped him like a wall she couldn't touch. But maybe she shouldn't worry about it because she herself had become unusually silent as well.

Perhaps they no longer felt the urge to say anything to each other because everything had been done and said. Feelings naturally changed while the relationship went through different stages, and this had been only one of them. Another change to their previous relationship was this strange urge to explore every nook and corner of each other with hands and lips. It was far more addictive than Ran would have expected, and they both enjoyed this development too much to complain about it.

###

Two months later, Shinichi returned to Ran for good. All the members of the criminal syndicate he had fought against when he was abroad had been caught, and Shiho and he didn't have to hide any longer. To Ran's surprise, Shinichi refused to let her stay overnight in his mansion for a second time for fear that Shiho could overhear their nightly activities, which Ran found slightly paranoid and childish of him. Although she didn't protest against his decision, Ran didn't understand why they should hide. After all, they were adults who were officially dating.

For a few months, Shinichi and Ran met secretly in various love hotels, where the clerks had begun to recognize them, which drove the blood to Ran's cheeks. Since Shinichi was adventurous and Ran always followed his lead, they had experimented with any position they could come up with, in any place where they could lie or sit or even stand. Once they had a heavy make-out session against their door on the empty floor of their hotel and only realized afterwards that they had been watched by a nosy girl, who had filmed them without them being aware of it. Another time Ran slipped and sprained her ankle because they tried to make love in the running shower.

In the second year of their relationship, Shinichi and Ran were very happy and very much in love. They spent most of their alone time naked in bed, and nothing else mattered.

A dark shadow hang over their relationship, however. There were moments when Ran clearly sensed that Shinichi was grateful for her love and patience but didn't love her in the same way in which she loved him, but Ran could also feel that Shinichi needed the security of a committed relationship with her, his best friend. Ran knew that, someday in the near future, Shinichi was going to propose; and since there was no doubt that Ran would say yes, they would marry soon.

From time to time, Ran wondered whether there was another woman in Shinichi's heart, who Shinichi was always thinking of while he was with her. Ran couldn't tell when and how she got the idea. Call it female intuition, or her subconscious which must have seen something she wasn't consciously aware of. Like a chronic pain, which wasn't too strong, the thought gnawed at Ran during the day and robbed her of her sleep at night. But for most of the time, Ran was happy with her boyfriend and enjoyed their time together.

If this situation hadn't changed, Ran could have lived with it. It was absolutely nothing, only her insecurity caused by Shinichi's unusual good looks and intellect—or that was what Ran kept telling herself until Shinichi murmured _her_ name in his sleep and Ran wished that all the three of them were dead.

###

"Do you think of _her_ when you're with me? Do you sometimes wish that I was her?"

"No, of course not! Why would I?"

His answer came a bit too quickly, too defensively, and he was truly terrible at hiding his guilt, which she could clearly see in his eyes. Mortified by her accusation, he tried to kiss her lips and stroke her cheek, but she turned away.

"Ran, I love you."

"You love me, but you love her, too!"

This wasn't a question since they both knew it was true.

"No, I don't!" This time, Shinichi didn't dare to meet her gaze. "Please stop this!"

It took Ran hours, days, weeks, months of nagging until Shinichi finally broke down and confessed. Yes, he did desire Shiho. Yes, he did sometimes fantasize about being with Shiho, but not always. Shinichi was committed to Ran and only Ran and loved Ran more than anything in the world, but maybe he loved Shiho, too, he honestly didn't know. Judging by the strength of his emotions, it was most probable.

Maybe he only missed his former partner now that they seldom met and he had no one of Shiho's intellectual caliber to assist him with his cases. Sometimes Shinichi did kiss Shiho in his dreams, once he dreamed of living with Shiho, perhaps his mind got the women in his life mixed up and only mistook Ran for Shiho or vice versa in his sleep, and he couldn't help that he sometimes thought of Shiho when he was with Ran, wondering what would have been if he had met Shiho first, but it didn't change anything about his love for Ran.

"I've never betrayed you! And I'll never, ever, betray you!" Shinichi repeated over and over again although, in Ran's opinion, he had already cheated on her when he dreamed about being with another woman.

"Then describe to me what you've already done to her in your dreams!" she demanded. "Don't leave anything out since you've promised to be honest with me!"

Shinichi shot her a pained gaze and refused for a few times before he complied and described it to her, every single imagined kiss, every guilty fantasy. It was nothing which Ran and he hadn't already done with each other, which appeased Ran a bit. But the image of the two of them together began to haunt Ran until she couldn't tolerate Shinichi's hands on her body anymore, couldn't even let him kiss her anymore. The intimacy between them slowly died along with her trust. With time, they even stopped going out on dates.

"I can't do anything against my feelings and dreams," Shinichi told Ran, exhausted by their daily fights. "But I swear I'll always love you and won't ever betray you!"

Despite Shinichi's efforts, Ran could no longer sleep and eat properly. Whenever she closed her eyes, she would see the two of them together, exhausted and satisfied, lying in his bed with their fingers intertwined. Then, out of the blue, a strange idea took shape and promised to be the ideal solution to their problem although Shinichi was convinced that it was only a product of Ran's sleep deprivation.

"Why don't you make a move on her?" she suggested to Shinichi after they had finally made love again, or rather had a few minutes of desperate make-up sex after another heated quarrel about her extreme jealousy and his complicated feelings for another woman, which began to harm their relationship. "Do sleep with her once to get it out of your system!"

She had read in women's magazines and online forums that having an open relationship sometimes helped. Just give your man his freedom and he would never think of leaving you! If a couple really loved each other, they might be able to imagine themselves in bed with other people but would never really have the heart to do the deed. Asking him to try it out was the best test for their relationship.

"That's a terrible, idiotic idea!" Shinichi glared at Ran in distaste. "Don't even think of it!"

"No, I really mean it! You can have her if you want her! That way, I'll feel much more secure than if you secretly dream of being with her while you're with me. I don't want her to become your perfect imaginary lover! You should learn to see her as a real woman, but be discreet about it so that people won't talk! Just go to her and then tell me about it so that I can trust you again!"

Ran secretly wished that Shinichi would go along with her suggestion so that he finally realized how little he wanted Shiho, or realized that there was absolutely no spark between Shiho and him before he even touched Shiho's lips. He would return to Ran with a peaceful mind and sincere, heartfelt apologies. But in the end, Ran was relieved that Shinichi only groaned and shook his head, murmuring that he could never understand women.

Still, Ran believed to have recognized a certain look in Shinichi's eyes when she suggested that he went to Shiho, which betrayed his true desire. Ran could see that he desperately wanted to be with the other woman even though he couldn't ever leave Ran for her. To aggravate matters, Shiho was in love with Shinichi as well, which was so obvious to anyone who saw them together that Sonoko had more than once warned Ran about the redhead. "If you don't keep an eye on that girl and your boyfriend, he'll run away with her on the day of your wedding!"

###

"I've seen how you winked at her!"

"Did I? I thought I only smiled at her."

"You smiled _and_ you winked at her. And your smile was different than the smiles you gave other people!"

"You're imagining things!"

"Why don't you simply admit that you like her?"

"But I _have_ admitted it, for a thousand times! I love her, I want her, but I also want to be here, with _you_!"

"Say, what would you do if we married and I died? Would you marry _her_ afterwards? Maybe you'll be lucky and I'll die soon enough so that you can have both of us!"

"Stop it, Ran! I've had enough!"

Their parents hinted that they had been together long enough to consider marriage. Sometimes, friends would ask them whether they already knew the names of their future offsprings. One day, Shiho broke up with Higo, who left the country afterwards, but Shinichi and she didn't resume their old partnership out of consideration for Ran.

Another winter wore away and another spring came along and another year passed. Ran had given up nagging but wouldn't let Shinichi touch her again. Instead, she patiently waited for Shinichi's proposal, which never came.

The dreaded day arrived when Shinichi, who had reached his breaking point at last, told Ran that he couldn't be with her anymore. He was breaking up with her since there was no sense in continuing a relationship when the couple didn't make love, didn't kiss, and didn't go out with each other. Since he had promised to be honest with her, Shinichi informed Ran that he was going to ask Shiho out. And before she could grasp what she was doing, Ran let Shinichi go and told him that she wouldn't mind if they stayed each other's best friends. If Shinichi and Shiho invited her, she would even attend their wedding.

Ran knew that Shinichi and she were destined for each other. If their relationship couldn't survive this test, no relationship could. Although parting from him hurt immensely, Ran was convinced that Shinichi would return to her in the end. Shinichi was going to date Shiho for an evening or two and find out that Ran was the one he truly wanted. Anything was better than the vicious fights and pain and tears and Shinichi's longing for the arms of another woman.

It was actually nice to spend the evening alone for once. Ran dressed up, went to the cinema where she watched a thriller about an unfaithful wife and a tragic love triangle, ate out, and made herself a cup of hot chocolate at home. The hours went by but Shinichi didn't call Ran as she hoped. Tough luck, maybe they enjoyed each other's company more than she expected, that's life, Ran thought.

When the night approached, however, Ran's restlessness increased and soon grew unbearable. Before Ran knew what she was doing, she was already slinking along the walls of Shinichi's mansion and hiding beneath the window of his bedroom, where they might be sleeping in each other's arms after making love. To her horror, they hadn't even started before she came; and from her hiding place behind the large tree, she could overhear their excited talks.

It suddenly hit Ran that the fascination between them wasn't only physical although it was visceral, the kind of irresistible, transcendental attraction between similar minds trapped in different bodies. For all that, the many banters and jokes she didn't get didn't hurt Ran nearly as much as his laughs. Ran couldn't remember the last time Shinichi laughed like that when he was with her.

Ran knew the exact moment when their lips touched because the talks abruptly stopped. Leaning against the wall next to the open window, she could hear Shiho's first stifled sighs and the sound of their ragged breathing. In the reflection in Agasa-hakase's window opposite Shinichi's bedroom, she could even see them together. They were kissing each other as if they were the only people on earth. Glued to each other at their hips and legs and hands and mouths, they were doing nothing special for endless minutes but stroking and kissing each other as if there was no tomorrow.

Shinichi's hands roamed over Shiho's skin and traced her curves under her thin dress. He wasn't making love to her as Ran feared, not yet, but he was kissing the woman on his bed with all the love and tenderness Ran could imagine. Holding her breath, Ran watched Shinichi take off Shiho's dress and unclasp Shiho's bra and let Shiho free him from his jeans. And when he covered his new lover's slender body with passionate kisses and ran his tongue over her small breasts, where his lips and hands lingered for an eternity before they continued the trail of caresses to her hips and legs, between which his head soon disappeared, Ran felt her eyes welling up with tears.

How did things go downhill? She once thought that this was something which would stay their secret, something Shinichi would never do with another woman.

Breathing hard, Shiho wrapped her thighs around Shinichi's neck and fisted Shinichi's hair; and Shinichi's movements grew increasingly feverish and wild with every of Shiho's gasps. Ran, who unblinkingly stared at the scene, saw in the window's reflection how Shinichi pulled himself up and whispered something into his lover's ear, which earned him a smile from her.

The surreal sight of Shiho's lips wandering in slow motion from Shinichi's belly down to Shinichi's hips and the sound of Shinichi's sighs and erratic breathing and "I love you's" shook Ran out of the stupor. What was she doing here when the man who no longer belonged to her was enjoying his freedom with another love? And when Ran's worst nightmare came true and she saw their bodies intertwined in the most intimate way just like she had already seen them in her dreams, moving together in the most perfect synchronization, with practiced ease and knowledge acquired in months or years of experimenting, something in her snapped.

He had been cheating on her all these years! With _her_. Or perhaps they were lovers years ago, during The Case Abroad before he returned to his ever-faithful, ever-supportive girlfriend. Shinichi had forced himself to be with Ran while he was secretly dreaming of the only woman he wanted. He had to imagine that Ran was _her_ to suffer all the painful things he believed to be his duty!

Suddenly, everything made sense. His denial, her coldness. His sorrowful silence, her longing glances. His bouts of passion with his official girlfriend, her (now cast-off) gorgeous, loving soccer star, who wasn't able to take her mind off him. Their undeniable palpable chemistry, which everyone around them noticed. The speed at which they started a relationship with each other after he left Ran…

Unable to bear the sight and the sounds, Ran began to run, first slowly, then picking up speed as if she possessed angel's wings and was chased by the spirit of evil. Later, when she was lying sprawled across her bed, crying her eyes out because Shinichi had been hers alone and she had stupidly let go of her happiness, the unwanted images and noises continued in an endless spiral in her aching head. The memory of Shinichi's kisses still lingered on her heated skin, driving her close to the edge with regret and hopeless longing.

Sure, it was Ran who tortured Shinichi with accusations and who ruined their relationship. Perhaps it was only a coincidence that Shinichi was always silent whenever he made love to Ran. Perhaps a part of Shinichi still loved Ran and he had only given her up. Perhaps he would even leave Shiho, his new lover, who he had never had an affair with, while he was with Ran, and return to his destined love if only she asked him to…

A fool's wishful thinking, impossible dreams! Ran didn't know whether she would take Shinichi back now that he had committed the ultimate betrayal just as she didn't know when she returned to his mansion. But she was conscious of entering it stealthily, using her spare key, and choosing the largest, sharpest knife from the kitchen quite nonchalantly, deliberately.

Ruthlessly, as if she was possessed by a demon, she tiptoed into Shinichi's bedroom, where the couple were still lying in each other's arms, unaware of the intruder who was going to end their happiness just when it had started. Beneath _her_ fragrant perfume and his dark cologne and the fresh scent of soap, the musky smell of their passion was still hanging in the air, nauseating to anyone but intoxicating to the lovers themselves. The sheets and blankets twisting around their legs were crumpled; used, moist towels were piling on the floor. They had been playful and extravagant when they celebrated their new beginning and even spilled red wine, probably sherry, on the bed. A half-empty bottle still sat on the floor, half-hidden behind his slippers and almost invisible in the soothing darkness.

Gazing down at the man she once loved, Ran could tell with absolute certainty that he wasn't ever going to return to her from the way how he cradled the other woman's head and held her close in his arm. His lover's naked breasts were pressed against his chest and her arm was holding his waist while his thigh casually rested between hers, a sickening sight! Ran knew that Shinichi had amazing reflexes and that she might have only one chance, one fraction of a second to end her agony even though he was still fast asleep. Him or her, or herself, she pondered.

Although Ran didn't make a sound when she stepped forward, Shinichi stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Her silk skirt rustled around her, like the leaves outside, when she raised the knife, and it occurred to Ran that the early bird, who always caught the worm, would soon sing when dawn broke. Summer was almost gone, the air was growing colder. Maybe she should cut some flowers.

The blade of the knife in Ran's hand gleamed beautifully, magically, silver in the light of the full moon. Soundlessly, in the moonlight, his beautiful lips parted and his bright eyes widened in shock when she let out a scream and instantly struck, putting all her strength and her experiences from years of karate training into the one strike that mattered.

###

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A/N: I know Ran would never, ever, react like that, but it was fun to imagine what would happen if she snapped since she did behave like a psycho sometimes whenever she believed to have a reason to be jealous.

 **Notes to the readers who believe this was a "dying for your ship" fic:**

I usually don't explain my stories, but since some reviewers seem to misunderstand it completely and I'm in the rare mood to justify myself, I'm going to clarify my intentions here: Formally, this fic has been written like the main movement of a symphony or sonata, with the exposition repeated and a recapitulation of the theme (moonlight) at the end, and a mini-coda, which leads to the ending. :) You can see it as a chamber piece in a minor key for three solo instruments if you like.

The fic is supposed to challenge, but somehow it challenged the readers in a way I didn't expect. It was **not** meant to be a Ran-bashing fic at all (and I did mention in the beginning that I enjoy a DarkRan-Shinichi, just as I did mention in the A/N at the end that I know canon-Ran wouldn't react like that). I've also left the option open that Ran would murder Shinichi (and probably Shiho and herself as well) in the end (although the possibility exists that Ran only kills herself in front of Shinichi to haunt him for life since "Ran" is the only "flower" of the story).

Why would an author let Ran do that if they're just trying to bash Ran to ship Shiho/Shinichi at all cost? If this were a "dying-for-your-ship fic," I would ignore the Ran/Shinichi relationship and focus on Shiho/Shinichi only.

Ran is the dark anti-heroine of the story, which was more about insecurity, jealousy, lack of social skills, and wandering eyes, things which can wreck a good relationship if you allow them to. The story follows Ran's point of view, so one needs to take everything she says with a grain of salt. You could either read it as Shinichi cheating on Ran ( **What a douchebag! Gasp!** ), but you could also read it as Shinichi being clueless and see that he didn't know how to express his feelings while Ran misinterpreted all the clues due to her obsessive love after he left her, whereupon she felt betrayed and cracked up, maybe only temporarily. (The things Ran had to witness after months of suffering are enough to make a woman in love run amok. And Ran does have an inclination towards fainting, throwing a tantrum, losing her memory etc. like almost all of the Gosho-girls, Ai included).

Although Ran isn't my favourite character, I chose Ran because her story was convenient for the murder plot (Shinichi's absence and mystery-freak tendencies and lies make her vulnerable) and because Ran is a karate girl. The plunny was born after I read a newspaper story of a karate girl who attacked her husband because she thought he had cheated on her (the husband, who had only helped a friend out when he fetched another girl from work, spent weeks in hospital afterwards). Of course I could have let the story end with a misunderstanding like that, and there are certainly readers for that sort of fluff, but this is the ending I preferred. It was also fun to play with the "angel" reference and tweak it into "angel turned demon".

I hope a few readers had a good laugh when the fic ended. :) As psychotic as she was, DarkRan was also stealthy, strong, and so efficient that she used her karate skills for a good cause (hey, it was a good cause, at least in her opinion!). At the beginning of the fic, Ran was submissive and naive. In the middle of the fic, she was influenced by friends, women's magazines, and online forums. But when the fic ended, Ran had her own agenda and used all her talents and skills to reach her goal. It was tragic that Ran, as a character, could only free herself from other people's influences when she had lost it completely and succumbed to (temporary?) madness instead, leading to a situation without a happy end, but the ending was never meant to turn Ran into a despicable person who enjoyed destroying others. Although she was violent (which is actually a canon trait of Ran's whenever she feels threatened and anyone comes between her and Shinichi), she didn't want to torture anyone but only wanted to "end her agony."


End file.
